PANAJI: A resolution was passed at the three-day national council meeting of the Communist Party of India (CPI) here on Thursday criticising the UPA Government for failing to make any significant attempt to break away with the past to reverse the previous Government's economic policies.

Noting that the economic policy being pursued by the UPA Government is not in conformity with the Common Minimum Programme or consistent with the mandate of the people as reflected in the last elections, the CPI urged the Centre to adopt a policy that accelerates economic growth, creates jobs and reduces poverty. The party called for a "people's budget (by) mobilising required domestic resources to step up investments for ameliorating the distress of the people."

Shamim Faizee, Secretary of the National Council and spokesman of the CPI, told presspersons that the resolution, while welcoming the enactment of law to ensure 100 days employment for all families in rural areas, lists out various problems faced by people. It calls upon the Government to take a note of the growing impatience among people for an improvement in their living conditions, he added.

The resolution seeks reasonable prices for farm produce, improvement in the public distribution system and checking violation of labour laws and attacks on the labour class.

On the taxation front, it urges the Government to broaden the tax base by introducing progressive taxation and increasing its resources instead of adopting the easy route of divestment for raising funds for the expansion of social infrastructure.

By another resolution, the CPI national council expressed solidarity with Communists in Europe and condemned the continued trial and victimisation of former Soviet communists by the Political Affairs Committee of the European Union.

On the issue of the suspension of MPs in the cash-for-questions case, the national council backed the stand taken by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee over the supremacy of Parliament in such issues. On political crisis in Karnataka, the party said the strength of the ruling coalition should be tested on the floor of the House.

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